Welcome

Hello and welcome to my moth Blog. I now reside in a small village in East Cambridgeshire called Fordham. My Blog's aim is to promote and encourage others to participate in the wonderful hobby that is Moth-trapping.
Moth records are vital for building a picture of our ecosystem around us, as they really are the bottom of the food chain. They are an excellent early indicator of how healthy a habitat is. I openly encourage people to share their findings via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
So why do we do it? well for some people it is to get an insight into the world of Moths, for others it is to build a list of species much like 'Twitching' in the Bird world. The reason I do it....you just never know what you might find when you open up that trap! I hope to show what different species inhabit Cambridgeshire and neighbouring counties.
On this Blog you will find up-to-date records and pictures.
I run a trap regularly in my garden and also enjoy doing field trips to various localities over several different counties.
Please also check out the links in the sidebar to the right for other people's Blogs and informative Websites.
Thanks for looking and happy Mothing!

KEY

NFY = New Species For The Year
NFG = New Species For The Garden
NEW! = New Species For My Records

Any Species highlighted in RED signifies a totally new species for my records.

If you have any questions or enquiries then please feel free to email me
Contact Email : bensale@rocketmail.com

My Latest Notables and Rarities

Sunday 28 May 2017

Field Trip - Hexton Chalk Pit - 25/05/17



Thursday night saw me trapping at Hexton Chalk Pit for the first time this year after doing a few daytime forays for moths and finding a few bits and pieces, it was time to go all out and spread 5 traps over the reserve.
I was joined by Trevor for a bit and Tony popped by to see how things were going.

The day had been very warm and sunny and mid-twenties by 4pm, there was however no cloud cover but with a warm breeze it was hardly going to get cold and in fact it was still 14 degrees at 2am when I left the reserve.
The traps out of the breeze did fair better and by midnight, the exposed trap on the chalk hill did take a pounding and most of the moths ended up about 3 metres from the trap having been blown there.

Numbers were pretty good and the species kept coming in, heck if I had stayed until dawn I probably could have added another 15 species I reckon but I had work the next day and getting to bed at 2.30am was late enough!

Some cracking species were netted before the lights were turned on, Bucculatrix bechsteinella (only my second ever), Elachista biatomella (new to me and a rare moth in the County only having one previous record), a shiney green moth which is the uncommon Eulamprotes unicolorella and Rhopobota stagnana (another new moth to me).

I joked to Trevor that we may as well pack up now after the successful half an hour of sweeping!

Other good moths that later came to the lights were Wood Carpet, Netted Pug, Anania fuscalis, Alder Moth, Marbled Coronet and Satyr Pug.

The best moth for me if correct would be Syncopacma sangiella, Graeme will look at it and if it is it will be a County first record.

It was also very pleasing to see that Anania fuscalis is still hanging on there after re-discovering it 181 years later in 2015.

Still reeling from seeing so many moths and I hope to be back in a few weeks.
 
Catch Report - 25/05/17 - Hexton Chalk Pit - North-west Herts - 5 traps in total - 2x 125w MV Robinson Trap 1x 160w MBT Robinson Trap 1x 40w Actinic + 15w LED Trap 1x 80w Actinic Trap
 
97 species

Macro Moths

2x Alder Moth
10x Brimstone Moth
1x Broken-barred Carpet
5x Brown Rustic
2x Burnished Brass
3x Clouded Border
3x Clouded Silver
15x Common Carpet
4x Common Marbled Carpet
5x Common Pug
40+ Common Swift
2x Fern
1x Figure of Eighty
1x Flame
15x Flame Shoulder
4x Freyer's Pug
30+ Grass Rivulet
20+ Green Carpet
1x Green Pug
1x Green Silver-lines
5x Grey Pug
12x Ingrailed Clay
5x Large Nutmeg
5x Latticed Heath
10x Light Brocade
20x Light Emerald
1x Lime-speck Pug
1x Marbled Coronet
10x Marbled Minor
3x Marbled White-spot
1x Middle-barred Minor
18x Mottled Pug
1x Mottled Rustic
3x Netted Pug
1x Nutmeg
5x Orange Footman
2x Pale Oak Beauty
1x Pale Prominent
15x Pale Tussock
1x Pebble Hook-tip
3x Peppered Moth
2x Pug id (to be gen det)
5x Purple Bar
1x Red-green Carpet
2x Red Twin-spot Carpet
5x Rustic Shoulder-knot
5x Satyr Pug
2x Scorched Wing
5x Setaceous Hebrew Character
50+ Shaded Pug
3x Shears
2x Shuttle-shaped Dart
3x Silver-ground Carpet
1x Small Phoenix
1x Small Purple-barred
8x Small Square-spot
5x Small Waved Umber
5x Straw Dot
1x Tawny Marbled Minor
1x Treble-bar
30+ Treble Lines
4x Waved Umber
5x White Ermine
1x White Pinion-spotted
2x White-spotted Pug
1x Willow Beauty
5x Wood Carpet
2x Yellow-barred Brindle
 
Micro Moths

1x Agapeta hamana
1x Agonopterix arenella
2x Anania fuscalis
1x Bucculatrix bechsteinella
1x Caloptilia robustella/alchimiella
1x Celypha lacunana
200+ Cochylimorpha straminea
1x Cochylis hybridella
2x Crambus lathoniellus 
10x Elachista argentella
1x Elachista biatomella [NEW!]
1x Epinotia subocellana
2x Endrosis sarcitrella
2x Eudonia pallida 
2x Eulamprotes unicolorella or Scythris fallacella (to be gen det)
2x Eupoecilia angustana
1x Mompha epilobiella
1x Monopis weaverella 
1x Nematopogon swammerdamella
3x Notocelia cynosbatella
5x Notocelia trimaculana
1x Rhopobota stagnana [NEW!]
15x Scoparia ambigualis 
30+ Scoparia pyralella
1x Syncopacma sangiella pos [NEW!] (to be gen det)
2x Syndemis musculana
1x Tinea semifulvella


Eulamprotes unicolorella













Anania fuscalis













Bucculatrix bechsteinella












Elachista biatomella











Rhopobota stagnana












Marbled Coronet













Netted Pug











Shaded Pug











Satyr Pug











Celypha lacunana













Wood Carpet











Pos Syncopacma sangiella to be gen det
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:38

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